Sunday, 5 May 2019

Inaul Festival Celebrates Maguindanao’s Traditional Weaving Art

“Life
is a loom, weaving illusion”[1] and
in Mindanao’s storied sundry of woven heritage, a diverse weaving art scattered
across the region abounds with dream-like patterns and fascinating backstories. Anecdotes encompassing
historical origins and local legends shaped the roots of the various cloth
creations of the Dreamweavers’ T’nalak of
South Cotabato, the Langkit of
Maranao, the Dagmay of the Mandayas, the
Tausugs's Habul Tiyahian, the Inabal of Davao del Sur’s
Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe, among others—and in this case, ushering a festivity called the Inaul Festival.

Stepping out of cultural
obscurity is the renaissance of Maguindanao’s living weaving tradition of Inaul. Literally translated to "weave" in local Maguindanaon
language, the Inaul is a fabric conveying Muslim culture and heritage through a
myriad of vibrant colors and intricate designs.

The Inaul's common colors
are said to symbolize true Maguindanaon principles: Red for bravery, yellow and
orange for royalty, black for dignity, green for peace, and white for either
mourning or purity.

Traditional
Designs of the Inaul

Most of the Inaul weavers
we met at the trade expo during the festival hails from the municipality of
Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao. It was here where we also talked with Noraina
Ansing, an Inaul master weaver for more than 30 years. She discussed to us the
five main designs they usually create. These are the Sikukaruwang, Lombayan, Karanda,
Biyaludan and the Sikuaundune.

The Sikukaruwang blends the main pattern shaped like an elbow, with a
diamond-shaped figure called the 'kinayupu'.
The Lombayan evokes the emotions of
love and sadness. The third design meanwhile, came about from a friendly
weaving competition Ansing’s grandfather Sultan Umping of Butig, asked her four
wives to participate. The winning design woven by his fourth wife became known
as the karanda. The Biyaludan is the most expensive among
the five designs and used only during special occasions. The process of weaving
this design involves the more complicated tie-dyed process. The Sikuaundune is characterized by a small
tip with a shorter tail. The patterns on this one is achieved when weavers
combine two designs.

2019
Inaul Festival: A Visual Pomp

In hopes of sustaining the
reemergence of this traditional weaving art, the province of Maguindanao organized
a festival named after it in 2017. Since then it has been held every month of
February in the municipality of Buluan.

The smiles and colors of Inaul Festival

The Inaul Festival -
unlike most festivals in the country, is not a one weekend spectacle. The
festivities lasted two weeks consisting of various events like cultural shows,
local cuisine exhibition, rodeo contest and a beauty pageant called the "Palamata Nu Maguindanao". Young
women from Maguindanao showcased long gowns made of Inaul fabric hence making
the event a beauty pageant slash cultural show. During the Governor's Night,
the Inaul fabric once again took center stage as beauty queens and fashion
models swaggered over the catwalk wearing fancy Inaul formal wear.

Started in 2012 as Sagayan Festival before it was renamed to Inaul Festival in 2017

The highlight of the Inaul
Festival occurred on the streets of Buluan where contingents from various towns
and municipalities paraded their Inaul themed floats along with street dancers
and musical bands.

All of the performers were
adorned with malong and gowns made of Inaul cloth created from the three types
of threads: tanor (cotton), silk (rayon) and the katiyado, commonly used by the
skilled Maguindanaoan women weavers.

The dazzling display of
the Inaul Festival street parade performers covered in vivid colors, even under the bright
sheen of the sun, made a lasting jovial impression on myself. Not only have I
learned more about the Inaul woven art of Maguindanao, I have also seen it up
close worn by men and women of all ages engage in all sorts of celebratory
movements.

As the decibels of the drum
beats starts to drown out and the street parade contingents wrap up their performances,
I ran my fingers at the smooth surface of a piece of Inaul cloth our hosts have
given us. It made me imagine the tedious process of shedding, picking and
battening – all repeated thousands of times, just to finish a woven bit.

Master Weaver Noraina Ansing

Afterward, I recalled the glowing
face of Noraina Ansing as she narrates to us the intricacies of Inaul weaving. Buoyed by her and fellow women weavers' passionate efforts in
keeping this wonderful living art to live on, I felt the pride covering her appearance becoming contagious.

About Marky Ramone Go
I started travel blogging in 2007 and has since became a full-time travel writer contributing for various travel magazines and newspapers such as the Manila Bulletin, BusinessMirror, The Daily Tribune, Travel Now, Gala Magazine and more.

About the Blogger

Marky Ramone Go is a travel-junkie, writer and photographer based in the Philippines. Aside from contributing articles to various publications and websites, he narrates his experiences wandering the tropical paradise of the Philippines, the culturally rich regions of South East Asia, Sri Lanka and India on this travel blog. After Asia, he is keen on exploring South America and eventually tracing Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" trail in the United States to Mexico.: